Academy award winning actor Morgan Freeman has spoken about the power of the gift of tongues on Christian believers, describing it as "the language of heaven".

The comments were made in episode two of season two of National Geographic's The Story of God with Morgan Freeman, as the Christian Post reports. In the episode titled 'Heaven and Hell', the actor visits a Pentecostal church in the US and explores the phenomenon of speaking in tongues.

"Some people feel they are touched by Heaven in a physical way every Sunday," says Freeman.

In the programme Freeman visits Newlife Pentecostal Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where speaking in tongues is common practice. Following a time of worship and preaching, the congregation moves into a time of charismatic worship, with some crying, jumping up and down, and many speaking in tongues.

Freeman did not participate himself in the worship, but says of the experience: "All around me people have been swept up by an invisible force. And now they speak, what they believe is the language of Heaven. I can see it on their faces that they are genuinely somewhere else."

Freeman describes the act of speaking in tongues as "heaven coming down to earth".

Annie, the member of the church with whom Freeman talked, spoke in tongues during the service and Freeman asks her if she understands what she was saying.

"When you let the Holy Spirit flow through you then you don't have control over yourself. It's just the Holy Spirit speaking to you," she says. "I can't wait to go to Heaven because that's how it would be at all times."

Freeman describes his lesson from the experience as "everybody's truth is the truth".

"That was quite a powerful experience. I could feel the energy in that space. Normal people suddenly transformed by some power and then just as suddenly return to normal. But Pentecostals believe that they are bringing heaven down to earth.

"Now, whatever it is, they felt that power [and] they are not the same. Experience changes them, how they see themselves, how they relate to others, how they live their lives," Freeman says.